Sherlock series three: new details revealed

Mark Gatiss, the co-creator of the BBC's Sherlock, has revealed that the new
series will begin with an episode based on The Adventure of the Empty House.

Benedict Cumberbatch in series two of the BBC series 'Sherlock'Photo: BBC

2:52PM BST 03 May 2012

The third series of the BBC's hit drama Sherlock will begin with an episode based on Arthur Conan Doyle's short story The Adventure of the Empty House, the series' co-creator Mark Gatiss has revealed.

The new series, in which Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman will reprise their roles as Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, is due to begin filming in early 2013.

"There's certain things about The Adventure Of The Empty House which feel set in stone because that's how Sherlock comes back, but at the same time we feel free to invent and to introduce new stuff to it," said Gatiss.

Season two of the BBC series ended earlier this year with an episode titled The Reichenbach Fall based on the Conan Doyle 1893 short story The Final Problem. In that story Conan Doyle killed off his most famous creation after a confrontation with his nemesis Moriarty in the Swiss Alps.

The corresponding BBC episode saw the famous sleuth apparently falling to his death from the roof of St Bart's Hospital in London, before re-emerging alive at the end of the episode.